Abstract:

Little is known about how parents' work-family conflicts affect young adults' career development. This preliminary study investigated the effect of perceived parental work to family conflict (PWFC) on the life role salience of university students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degree programs. Life role salience refers to the attributed importance of work and family roles. Drawing on social learning and gender role theories, we examined how students' observations of their parents' work-family experiences shape their attributions about the importance of future work and family roles.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted with final-year and postgraduate STEM students at the University of Cape Town (N=191, 55% female, age range 18-37). Participants had never been married or had children, allowing a focus on anticipated rather than current life roles. Measures included validated adaptations of the well-established Life Role Salience Scale and Work-Family Conflict Scale.

Factor analysis confirmed the expected dimensionality of the measurement scales. Work role salience and family role salience emerged as distinct constructs for students. Reliability analysis showed adequate internal Cronbach’s alphas (both with α>.7). Students attributed significantly higher importance to future professional work roles than family roles, contradicting previous South African research showing an equal or greater family focus. Interestingly, only 71% planned to marry and have children, indicating a shift in traditional values, which emphasize family obligations.

Further analysis showed that same-sex perceived PWFC predicted family role salience. For female students, perceived maternal PWFC was significantly related to family role salience. For male students, paternal PWFC was significantly associated with family role salience. Even though the percentage of explained variance was modest in both cases (R-squared < .2), this result indicates the importance of the gendered intergenerational transmission of work-family constructs.

The results of this study contribute to understanding how STEM students in South Africa form expectations about their future life roles, which influences their career choices. STEM work is still male-dominated, but our findings indicate shifting values among emerging STEM professionals and have implications for those seeking to address work-family integration, enhance recruitment and retention strategies, and mitigate gender disparities in STEM. This study's South African cultural context indicates how globalisation and new career opportunities for women in STEM influence traditional societal values. We hope our findings will provide helpful insight to those seeking to support the next generation of STEM professionals in managing anticipated work-family demands.

Keywords:

Work role salience, life role salience, maternal work-family conflict, paternal work-family conflict, STEM students.